My Proposal

For many kids with are born prematurely, they growth potential is significantly cut off. For kids who have a disorder in their pituitary gland in their brain causing it to not function and secret hormones properly, their growth potential has also been diminished.

Thanks to the researchers at Genentech, scientists have been able to synthesize in the labs an FDA-approved growth hormone for therapy treatment with actual strands of DNA from the hormone that is secreted by your own body. This safe and effective breakthrough has shown to increase children’s final height by over 4 inches and it has brought many answers to children and the children’s parents.

HGH can be a great benefit for adults as well. As people age, their bodies tend to not work as well as the once used to. Studies show that by the time a person is in their 70’s, they produce three-fourths less of the growth hormone they had in their 40’s. Such deficiency leads to a slower metabolism, which increases weight gain, high blood pressure, and many more complications can stem off of that.

There are those people who abuse the growth hormone. Many famous athletes and bodybuilders have been accused of abusing it alongside anabolic steroid. This type of abuse is what is mostly shown in the media. This must stop. It portrays the treatment negatively, and since that’s the side most people see, it leaves people with a gloomed perspective.

In order change how people see HGH in the media, we must change what people see in the media. One example would be to purchase commercial time and advertised and clarified the benefits for children and adults. A commercial can be shot and aired on TV for as little as $1000. This would be a great investment. Radio commercials are much less expensive since there is less involvement with third party personnel. Businesses can now advertise on popular websites for as low as $10! The Growth Hormone Foundation is a non-profit organization that advocates for GH treatment for people with GH deficiencies. If they could have a spokesperson from the Foundation in the commercial ads, it could begin to change the way the media portrays growth hormone.

Putting out advocacy campaigns and advertisements on TV, the radio, and the internet is the first step towards the new image of HGH in the media. By showing the benefits this treatment has on children and adults with growth hormone deficiencies, it can hopefully start to change the dreadful image that was given by the abuse of athletes.

Cause and Effect

Cause: children with growth hormone deficiency grow 4-5 inches taller, on average
Effect: the synthetic hormone makes up for the deficiency that is naturally occuring in children. This hormone stimulates growth before puberty. Hence, no hormone, les growth.

Cause: adults who undergo HGH treatment in their 60's-80's lose weight and gain lean muscle.
Effect: the GH helps with your body's own metablic process. The less there is in your body, the slower your metablism, the less your body digest (ie, increase in body fat).

The Opposition...

In the article by Susan Gilbert titled "Growth Hormone Use in Children Found Innfective in Large Study" The first line is very eye catching, as a means to lure the reader in. It starts out, "A LARGE study has cast strong doubt on the increasingly common practice of giving growth hormone injections to short children to help them reach an average height." Here are some other ways the writer supports this claim:

• children grew 2.4-2.7 inches less than expected (statistics)
• the hormone therapy can actually inhibit natural growth
• kids don't usually grow to the target height until 6 years after the therapy

There seems to be a lot of flaws in this study, unless the article just leaves out a lot details about the study.

Where I Stand

When I first started researching this topic, I didn't really have a stance on it. With everything that's been in the media about athletes abusing the GH alongside steroids, I was hesitant to advocate it. Once i got into reading how it can benefit kids and elderly people, it made me realize that there's more to HGH than gaining muscle. I am definetaly for HGH as a means of therapy for people with a growth hormone deficiency. I hope my essay can enlighten readers that theres more to the treatment than whats been on the medial

Defining Terms

some key words/terms used when researching HGH are: Normal Human growth hormone secretion, biosynthetic, recombinant DNA therapy, hormone-deficient children, and fountain of youth. These words are important phrases when it comes my topic.

in order to understand hormone-deficiency in children, you have to understand normal HGH secretion in the body. the pituitary gland in the brain produces and secrets HGH. When it fails to produce enough HGH, one becomes deficient. When this occurs, a biosynthetic form of the hormone can be injected as a form of therapy. This hormone is made by inserting the genetic blueprint of it (the HGH DNA)into bacteria, which then produces the hormone. this is called recombinant DNA therapy. Although this is meant for children, studies have shown that this can elderly people as well. Many people misconstrue this therapy form in adults as a fountain of youth because it can help them lose weight and gain lean muscle.

Although a lot of the terms used are medical term, they are vital to understanding the process of GH therapy.

Ads for HGH

This advertisement I found on www.hghstimulator.com is ideal for my paper. Since HGH can help slow down and possibly reverse the effects of aging, the lady in the picture portrays it really well. It shows her being active, vibrant, and young. The light shinning down on her makes her look as if she's almost glowing. It advertises a form of hgh that is available for purchase through the website. The FDA approved HGH I believe needs to be administered by a doctor in injection form. Either way, it advertises it in a positive way... hopefully it can open the curiosity of people to learn more about it.

Although that ad is best for my paper, this one was my favorite =) lol

*courtesy of circusafterhours.com

GH helping the elderly as well

On Nov. 11, 2002, Gina Kolata wrote an article in the New York Times about HGH. She uses inductive reasoning to state how growth hormone can help elderly patients. In the article, she uses a specific clinical trial to prove her point about the effects of the treatment on adults. The trial consisted of both female and male patients that ranged in age from early 60's to late 80's. "The results were potent." Kolata states. Some men gained over 10lbs in muscle mass while women lost about 5lbs and gained only a few pounds of muscle mass.

Kolata uses a (slippery slope) illogical fallacy when she compares the trial stated above to another trial that was conducted on animals. SHe warns that we should proceed with caution when it comes to HGH. When animals were gives HGH, it sped up the aging process for them. Although we can learn a lot from these results, we can not assume that what happen to the animals will happen to humans. we're not built the same and too many factors are involved that can skew the results. Other than that, she was good about not making any other illogical fallacies.

My two articles

For my first article I chose one that has been written by Dr. Tim Von Fange, a Family Practitioner. During his time off at his job in at Moses J. Cone Memorial Hospital in Greensboro, North Carolina, Dr. Von Fange writes for the Journal of Family Medicine. Since parents would be the ones researching HGH for their children, Dr. Von Fange is more than qualified to write about HGH therapy.

My second article was written by a group of about ten doctors. If ten doctors working on one article isn't qualifying, then I don't know what is.

The great thing about the two articles is they both talk about HGH in different aspects. The first one is about HGH helping children while the second is about the effects of HGH as a performance enhancing drug in professional athletes... both great and controversial topics.

Human Growth Hormone Popularity is Growing!

Hello y'all! I came across a very interesting topic in the New York Times (well interesting for me). It's about how scientist are able to help short people grow! For those (of us) who understand how it is to bee below the national average height, 5 foot 9 inches for men and 5 foot 4 inches for women, this sounds like great news! This new therapy is specifically for children with low, very, very low, hormone levels that actually stunt a child's physical growth. It's also recommended for children with certain genetic disorders, such as Turner syndrome, where the disorder itself makes a child's body out of proportion. What scientist are actually doing is biologically synthesizing a stimulant that kicks your hormones into gear and, essentially, helping you get growth spurts just like any pubescent teen =). I should make it clear that hormonally normal children who are just genetically short are able to receive this treatment also.

Due to it's newness, a lot of long term effects aren't known. it is also really expensive (most insurances don't cover it) and the hormone therapy isn't a for sure deal either. However, there have been many successful cases.

Kinda gives you hope for the future! =)